How did you get started in Traveller?

[sabredog]

Was it because nobody else knew what to do with the original LBBs in '77 so they just gave them to you to make something out of them (like happened with me..."Hey, you like Space 1999 and stuff - you take these and figure out how to play it."), or was it because you bought them?

And how did you figure out how to play the game...I mean really play, not just solo it and use the OTU as it was developed, but what did you do with the game when you first got it to make it into what you do with it now?

 

[aramis]

I had been playing and running D&D/AD&D (hybridized together, really).

Then I/we moved for HS. Out to a bedroom community, called Eagle River.

I found a game of Star Frontiers going, joined it; played at lunch. Wasn't thrilled with it, but it was better than D&D... and was talking with Mike (whom I sat next to in JROTC and Math), mentioned my Dralasite just got killed, and he mentioned he was playing Traveller.

Next day, I went with Mike to the Traveller game (also at lunch. We had 45 minutes for lunch, PLUS 5 min either side for passing time). The GM, Rick, didn't own a copy of the rules... he'd hand copied the CGen, Combat, and Ship tables. I was hooked. It was a "dark 3I" kind of game. I was the first in the group to own the rules (I got TTB and Deluxe Traveller for Christmas that year). But Rick was running pretty darned tight to the CT rules.

When Rick graduated, I took over the group.

 

[Hemdian]

That's kind of an open-ended question for an "opinion poll" but here goes:

I'd always been into world building and SF, long before I discovered RPGs. As a kid my wall was covered with star maps that I'd invented and pictures of rockets and so on. Looking back on it now that seems a bit weird.

Then my family moved to a new town (on a new continent) just in time to start high school grade 10. I didn't know anybody. But the school had a "club daze" thing at the start of the semester and there was this one group trying to drum up membership for the school D&D club. I had no idea what it was about so I signed up for it anyway, along with a few other school clubs. After about 6 months, and by now being completely hooked, I tried my hand at GMing. Initially still D&D (specifically AD&D) ... but I always liked SF so my first campaign mutated fairly quickly into a bizzaro SF thing, complete with massed Dalek hordes (which no one in my group had even heard of at that time). Then one day, whilst browsing at my FLGS, out of curiosity I picked up JTAS 6 and 8 (#7 was sold out). A month later I returned and bought the basic Traveller game box and started collecting all things Traveller.

In the group I was now in (which had evolved out of the school D&D club after a blanket ban on all RPGs in the school) we took turns GMing, but everyone had their own game: I was the Traveller GM, one friend was the AD&D GM, another was the Star Trek (FASA) GM, and so on. Of course over the years since then we all tried several others (C&S, Rolemaster, Space Opera, Twilight 2000, Paranoia, Droids, Call of Ctulhu. Gamma World, Boot Hill, etc) but I always came back to Traveller.

But the point is that I'd already learned the basics of how to roleplay, and had had a bash at GMing and world building, so Traveller just came naturally.

And back then it was also handy because, after character generation, I could largely "freeform it" without needing to memorize many tables. With the school ban on RPGs this was important as being found in the school corridor at lunch time with an RPG book earned you a trip to the Principle's office. I felt a bit sorry for the AD&D GM as he had dozens of tables to memorize (this was pre-THAC0 and so there was a separate 20x20 ToHit table for each character class). To this day I tend to GM semi-freeform rules-lite just-wing-it. In retrospect that school ban kind of did me a favour, I think I'm a better GM now than I might have been otherwise.

Since those early days I've experimented with different things ... props, sound FX, non-linear story lines ... to try and keep the games fresh and improve the in-character roleplaying aspect of our gaming. And by being in groups that take turns to GM, and GM different games, I've continued to pick up new tricks from my fellow gamers.

Anyway, there you go.

 

[Burocrate]

From a friend

One of my buddies in freshman year of HS introduced me to the Traveller (three little books in a cool black box) and I was hooked. I brought my fellow D&D munchins into the game and we had some great hours of play.

 

[snapshotbygdw]

Never mind how I sometimes wonder WHY!

In 1977 I was 13 and had been a junior member of a wargaming group for about a year: standard stuff 10.00 till 5.00 on a Sunday play a couple of 1/300 ww2 battles or some ancient slugfests then wind down with a board game or couple of hours D&D (no advanced back then)!

As was often the way back then a couple of the guys ran a "shop" for members, mostly suppling us with white dwarfs, wargaming figures, board games etc.

Somehow they got given a "sample" Beowolf box set (I still have it), and as the youngest member I was given the duty of learning and reviewing it.

Two weeks later I ran my first adventure: A fairly naive affair, a group of adventurers are forced to land on a primative world and must search for raw "crystals" to power their depleted engines! Our space suited heroes had to race against the clock (limited air supply), fight or avoid local predators and deal with a primative "medieval" society. Pure Star Trek rip off, but it went down really well.

I'm sure some of my own fondness for Traveller stems from the pride I felt as a result of my older adult gamers giving me such positive support and feedback over my efforts.

As a result I ran several sessions over the course of the next couple of months, and our group expanded when I "recruited" several friends from school, to the extent that we met regulalry on a Tuesday night for RPG sessions.

Whilst it was true that enthusiasm for Traveller waxed and wained amongst the older wargamers, the little core of teenagers I gathered played regular games of traveller for the next 3 years or so (until we left school and girls, college, armed service or apprentiships got in the way).

I for my part have played classic traveller for 34 years now, I still run a regular face to face game midweek as Ref and play a character in an internet game on Sunday nights.

Snapshot

 

[Jame]

In 1977 I wasn't born yet so I couldn't have CT.

My start with finding Traveller was getting the TNE core book in 1993, when I was 13; my first actual play was in 2003 after I found this board (through looking lustfully at T20, having had a bunch of GURPS Traveller stuff) and a few other players around here.

 

[Thoth-Amon]

My friends and I played DnD since the mid-70's, and were looking for something to take care of our scifi fix. When Traveller CT came out, we were hooked. Later on - and not being very happy with DnD, I was pleased when WFRP was released.. good bye DnD.

Favorite games of all time: Traveller CT & WFRP, one for science fiction, the other, fantasy. I still play both to this day, and I play them dark and gritty.

I love the flexibility of CT. Whenever a great scifi flick was released, we played it CT style. Some of our most bloody homebrew games would include a CT version of Alien.

Deep space corporate scout & mechanic, Thoth-Amon

 

[PFVA63]

Hi

One of my friends in High School recommended it to me, so me, him, and two other friends started messing around with it.

Regards

Pat

 

[shadowcat20]

Back about 1981 one of my D&D players turned me on to it. We alternated between 1st Ed D&D one week and him running classic Traveller the next week in Decatur ILL. In the winter of 81-82 I also ran a short campaign at Judges Guild in the game room on Saturday open games days. I was still running games about 83 or 84 after moving to the Detriot area and have a core group starting to show interest again.

 

[AndreaV]

The LBBBs were the first rpg I ever bought way back in 1979 during my last year at high school. I was a member of my school wargaming club and had vaguely heard of this "Traveller" as some kind of SF wargame thing in gaming mags. So I got it to see what it was. Took me about two weeks to figure out that the point of the game wasn't just to generate characters :rofl:

 

[Matt123]

I went through high school hooked on D&D, converted to AD&D, played Gamma World & few others. I still have a dropped shoulder from the weight of the rpg books I used to carry to school. My real passion though was wargaming, but the local wargaming club was elitist - if you didn't have your Napoleonic army already painted, with the correct number of buttons on the tunics, you were not encouraged to hang around.

At some stage I picked up Traveller, but it was Striker that initially fired me up (using ww2 tanks as grav tanks...). I also dabbled with solo play Merchant trading and organized a couple of games of TCS. My actual roleplay experience with Traveller is limited.

Like others, I kept coming back to Traveller. Everything else is in storage, even the wargaming stuff, but my dead tree Traveller collection is here "just in case I need it". A bit geeky perhaps, but hey it makes me happy

 

[sabredog]

My real passion though was wargaming, but the local wargaming club was elitist - if you didn't have your Napoleonic army already painted, with the correct number of buttons on the tunics, you were not encouraged to hang around.

I started with Napoleonics too, both naval and land. but I was more fortunate in some ways than you in that at least they weren't an elitist bunch. Not too, at least when it came to letting a nerdy but well-versed 13 yo who knew the difference between a Hussar and a Lancer play with them even if he couldn't afford to buy more than two units.

But I was only allowed to have the 95th Rifles (because these guys knew how to handle the formations and I didn't so I got the skirmishers) and the Coldstream Guards during our endless battles at Waterloo and Quatre Bras (all we had were French and British - nobody liked the others I guess and those armies get expensive). They figured I couldn't get into too much trouble with them and they were both easier to paint than the cool cavalry units I wanted to play.

But I did kick their old-guy rears in the naval actions - I reinvented Nelson's tactics before I even knew how he won Trafalgar! Through sheer unpredictability born of total ignorance of "how it was supposed to be done in real life" I shattered their lines (which before I read the history on that sort of thing I thought it was a dumb way to fight with ships) and smashed their ships - usually a lot of unintentional ramming was involved.

Like others, I kept coming back to Traveller. Everything else is in storage, even the wargaming stuff, but my dead tree Traveller collection is here "just in case I need it". A bit geeky perhaps, but hey it makes me happy

Same here: I even have the first ed. of Tunnels and Trolls, Bushido, Runequest, and piles of SPI and Avalon Hill wargames (my beloved and much shot up rifles and guardsmen are long gone...but I do have a couple of old frigates and sloops left from my "career" in the RN) but even when not running Traveller I still keep it out and handy to tinker with.

 

[Sturn]

Was playing D&D with a friend and a group of strangers (that became friends) at the local library around 1979-1980. One of the new friends had an older brother that had everything produced thus far for Traveller. We ended up going to his house and little brother ran a Traveller campaign for us. I later purchased the LBB's from JCPenney's of all places (yes back then they stocked games including RPGs, a different world) to run my own campaign.

I still remember standing in JCPenny's reading, "This is Free Trader Beowulf calling anyone..." and getting all tingly before buying it.

 

[Easterner9504]

Starting

Hard core wargamer.

Phil Kosnett reviewed TRAV in MOVES magazine (apprx 1978), so I bought it. Never stopped til the Rebellion/New Era came along. Restarted some years ago when GURPS TRAV successfully put the toothpaste back in the tube.

 

[MarianLH]

I began roleplaying with D&D in 1980, but I didn't discover Traveller until the early 90s when TNE came out.

 

[kafka47]

Began with D&D, circa 1981 and then in 1982 saw the FASA boxed deckplans and dreamed of SF. Then, late 1982 I picked up the Atlas of the Imperium at another shop a few months later. When beneath the gorgeous cover there just a bunch of dots scattered across the page - what utter crap I thought.

Circa 1983, saw The Traveller book in a shop and saw it as a thing of beauty, saved my money for the book (6 wks worth of allowances) but it was gone. Could not find it anywhere. Circa late 1984, picked up Starter Traveller at my local comic store abandoned D&D forever and became a Travellerin' Man. 1985 picked up CT Alien Module Solomani and started figuring out this huge universe and never looked back.

 

[HiverLord]

I started with D&D/AD&D in Jr High (80-81). Found the LBB's in a gameshop in south Minneapolis, and started running with the same group.
They were mainly into the fantasy stuff, but I ran a long-running campaign lasting at least six years - with essentially the same group of characters. Not bad for a newbie referee, I'd guess.

 

[E.D.Quibell]

My best freind introduced me to D&D in '83 and I picked up a copy of White Dwarf in my FLGS about two weeks later. Next to it was a hardback edditon of the Traveller Book. I picked it up in the shop and couldn't put it down.

Best regards,

Ewan

 

[sabredog]

I think the year that hardbound edition came out I gave almost everyone in my group one of those for Christmas so they would finally stop asking to borrow my LBBs. I had a couple of sets of LBBs as I (and everyone else) wore them out and figured this was the best way to stop having to track down more.

And I still have one each of the Traveller Adventure and Traveller Book. Sitting on my shelf right next to my AD&D Dungeon Master's Manual.

 

[pmbnss]

Similiar Character Background

Started with D&D Basic and Expert sets in 1980-1981, and then ordered the Traveller boxed set through TSR's or Task Force Games' catalog in 1981-1982-ish. Fiddled around with it for a year or so until I met the guy in Junior High who ultimately become my friend - his father ran Traveller adventures for my friends' older brother and his friends - high schoolers!

Picked up Megatraveller and Trav:2300 in the very late 1980s. Never the primary RPG for campaigns (instead: MERP, FASA's Star Trek RPG, and Vampires: The Masquerade), but always a classic default for one-off Friday-night or weekend adventures.

We tended to go back and forth with wargaming, sim-gaming, and RPGs. I ran campaigns, my friend did excellent single episode stories, and we wargamed whenever possible (depending on the mix of people available).